An undertaker refuses to let the dead rest in this Southern gothic book.
Kenneth Tyler and his sister Corrie go to their father's tomb, suspicious that something is wrong with his burial, only to find out that their father, a whiskey bootlegger, was not truly buried in the casket they bought for him. Worse, they discover that the undertaker, Fenton Breece, has been manipulating the corpses in a horrible manner.
Tyler becomes obsessed with bringing the wicked undertaker to justice after obtaining damning images. But first, he must evade Granville Sutter, a local strongman and convicted killer who Fenton has hired to destroy the evidence. Tyler then embarks on a journey through the Harrikin, a frightening wilderness replete with convoluted roads, rusting machinery, and quirky squatters–old men, witches, and families among them–who both protect and endanger him as he flees for his life.
William Gay rewrites the laws of the gothic fairy tale while addressing old Southern themes of good and evil with his beautiful, haunting words.
She was a page torn from a calendar, a year folded neatly and laid aside in some place you never look.
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